A New Best Friend?
by Turquoiseau
Summary: Sasuke and Naruto are living together and when Naruto wants to buy a kitten, things go down hill from there...


Sasuke was in the kitchen, preparing a bowl of Raman for Naruto and a bowl of rice for himself. He had woken up rather early after experiencing yet another nightmare depicting him walking through town to see bodies of the great Uchiha clan lying about everywhere. He could see his brother ahead of him, unfeeling and cold as he simply stood there waiting for him.

"Itachi…" Sasuke breathed, picking up speed as he headed straight for his brother, only to find himself locked in an unending vision of members of his family falling all around him, over and over and over…

He phased out of his dream as he placed the two bowls on the square table. He called for Naruto, who in turn called him.

"Hey, Sasuke! Come over here! I wanna show you something cool!" The blond shouted from the top of the stairs. Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed as he went out to see what his stupid friend was up to now. He came out to the main hall to see Naruto leaning over the top rail of the upper floor, feet poised to jump.

"Naruto, you moron." Sasuke pointed out. "You're only gonna end up going to the hospital."

"Nah-uh." Naruto said, shaking his head, "This time I'm gonna land on my feet like a real ninja would!"

Sasuke gave a bored expression and folded his arms, looking up at the boy.

With a huge swing of his legs, Naruto flew down to the ground, but lost control too quickly and fell smack down on his stomach, hands outstretched. Sasuke walked casually over to him as Naruto muttered, "Ow."

"Are you alright?" Sasuke asked, smiling a little at the idea that Naruto would actually land on his feet for once. He grabbed the other boy's hand and lifted him up, tossing Naruto's arm around his shoulder. "I keep telling you not to do that."

He brought the blond into the kitchen where he made him sit down so he could eat something. At the whiff of Raman, Naruto seemed to automatically feel better. He grabbed the chopsticks and started slurping up the noodles without delay.

"Take it easy, Naruto," Sasuke advised, observing him as he slowly ate his rice, "you don't want to get indigestion."

Through a mouthful of noodles, Naruto asked, "Immajessjun?"

Sasuke stared at him for a moment, almost appalled at him talking with his mouth full and yet found what Naruto said kind of cute at the same time. He ended up not reprimanding him.

After breakfast, Sasuke walked with Naruto into town. For some reason, Sasuke began feeling guilty. He and Naruto proposed living together for only a few weeks now just so they wouldn't be alone after they went home. For Naruto, he wanted someone to talk to and help train with. For Sasuke though, it was for the comfort of knowing he had someone there with him. He hated coming back to his empty house, knowing what went on there years before and just felt happy when Naruto was with him. He didn't know how to explain it or whether what he felt was even real, but there was something about Naruto unlike anyone else that he found…special.

As he came back to where they were, almost abruptly, Naruto stopped walking. Sasuke almost tripped, but caught himself at the last minute, turning to Naruto angrily.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto, however, wasn't listening to him as he stared into the pane-glass window of a pet shop. He pressed his nose and hands up to the glass as he cried, "Oh my gosh, Sasuke! We need to get one of them!"

Sasuke glanced over to what Naruto was referring to and found Naruto staring at a basket of kittens, crawling over each other and mewing sweetly and innocently. Sasuke looked slightly disgusted.

Naruto turned to Sasuke as he asked, "Please, Sasuke? Can we please get one?"

"Naruto, I've lived my whole life without owning a pet. I don't need to start now."

"Please, they're so cute!"

"No." Sasuke said firmly.

"Don't make me persuade you with my Ninja Centerfold jutsu." Naruto threatened.

Sasuke laughed shortly, knowing that he would never be tempted by that trick. He wasn't that much of a perv.

"Forget it, Naruto." Sasuke told him, "We're not getting a cat."

"Why not?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms in a childish fashion.

Sasuke sighed and said, "Because…there's no point in buying something you could just as easily find on the streets."

"But—"

"I said forget it!" Sasuke finalized.

Then, Naruto gave what might have been considered to be the saddest, most pathetic look ever in all their years of knowing each other and Sasuke, despite himself didn't want Naruto to start crying over some stupid cat he couldn't have, so Sasuke gave in, rolling his eyes as Naruto charged inside the pet store, beaming. Sasuke reluctantly followed inside, just to make sure Naruto didn't hurt himself. It seemed whenever he was with him, Naruto always managed to get into something, no matter what. Sasuke didn't enjoy looking after Naruto almost every second, but felt obligated to do it nevertheless. Sometimes he didn't mind it…sometimes their time together would be fun, but other times, Naruto would act so immature that Sasuke would tell him he'd wait outside or he'd have to use the restroom just to get away for a moment, but only for a moment.

After Naruto got his kitten, the two of them got some lunch and at one point, Sasuke caught Naruto sneaking the small kitten some fish through the holes in the box he carried.

Sasuke walked, avoiding people's gaze as they looked at them, especially when Naruto would talk to Sasuke loudly behind him and Sasuke would ignore him. In truth though, Sasuke heard everything Naruto said and answered him in his head.

"So, Sasuke," Naruto said, excited, "what do you think we should name her?" He motioned to the box he held in his hands. Sasuke didn't look at him, but in his head he said, _anything you want._

"I was thinking of Kodora." Naruto suggested, peering into the holes and saying in a high-pitched voice, "Hi there, Kodora!"

_Kodora…small tiger._ Sasuke thought. _That name sounds appropriate enough._

Once they reached the Uchiha manor, Naruto almost immediately let the small cat out of the box. Sasuke saw that the small kitten had stripes running across his back and he realized the cat definitely fit the name Naruto gave her.

Naruto played with the kitten practically all afternoon until Sasuke called him at four to train. Naruto left the kitten reluctantly to play with the box she had been carried in to follow Sasuke out to the woods where they trained. Sasuke noticed Naruto kept missing the target which wasn't like him. I mean, he didn't get every shuriken to hit the target, but a couple would land somewhere, yet Naruto almost seemed bored.

"Can we go now?" He asked after an hour of practice. Sasuke looked at him surprisingly, yet by the look on his face, one couldn't see that he showed any such emotion.

Naruto lazily threw his final shuriken at the target which stuck in the ground several feet in front of it. Sasuke asked in return, "Are you done?"

Naruto stretched his hands behind his head as he said, "yep."

Sasuke knew an hour wasn't nearly enough time for Naruto to train. He sometimes would spend full days devoted to nothing else (other than Raman of course). Sasuke knew what Naruto wanted. He wanted that cat he bought today. He wanted to play with it some more.

They headed back in silence, the whole time Sasuke thinking about Naruto. It was becoming clearer each day that Sasuke noticed a certain tension between them, but different than when they were just starting out as a part of team 7. This tension was softer, almost aching in a sense at what he thought he felt. Sasuke never showed affection, or he tried to keep it at a very minimal level, but ever since Naruto lived with him, he noticed something almost relaxing about having him there. But now, all Naruto could think about was the cat that was waiting for him.

Naruto dropped all of his training gear at the door when they got there, running to the living room where he called the kitten's name excitedly. Sasuke bitterly picked up Naruto's mess and set it neatly on the dresser in the room Naruto slept in. He slept on the top floor while Sasuke slept on the main floor in the back room. He hated sleeping alone, but he knew Naruto would never want to sleep with him, even though he sometimes wished he would.

Sasuke went outside, leaving Naruto in the glee of his new friend and sat down on a grassy hill. He thought about a lot of things in the time he was out there…Naruto…dinner…the mission they would have on Monday…Naruto…

Soon, he heard Naruto's angry voice yell from inside the house, "Hey, Sasuke! What's for dinner?"

"What do you think, idiot?" He shouted back. They had lived on Raman and rice for the past couple days. Naruto had no complaints about the Raman, but Sasuke was growing slightly tired of his own diet. Hopefully next week he would get more money to get some dumplings or even beef curry.

After several more complaints from the blond boy inside, Sasuke got up from his grassy spot to make them some food. While they ate, Naruto had brought Kodora with him to feed her scraps. It wasn't until he let her eat food from the table that Sasuke had to object.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, breaking finally, "get her off the table."

The other boy looked up at Sasuke as he said cheekily, "Aw, come on, Sasuke, she likes it."

"Naruto." Sasuke said, his eyes narrowing at the blond.

The blond boy sighed and lowered the mewing kitten from the table, feeding her chicken from his hands. He gave the brown-haired boy a dirty look as they continued eating in silence.

That night, Sasuke went to bed early, not wanting to annoy his friend any more with his presence on account of his new obsession. He knew that buying a cat was a bad idea. Still, Sasuke felt like he was reaching too much into this whole thing. After all, Naruto had been friendless for a portion of his life and enjoyed company…yet Sasuke was here. He liked it when Naruto was here, but not when he ignored him. It was odd, but Sasuke almost started feeling jealous toward the kitten that Naruto focused on now. He convinced himself it wasn't as bad as it seemed and fell asleep rather quickly.


End file.
